Step 1: I bought the book, You Can Draw in 30 Days and it has been a great resource to start to learn some basics of drawing! The tips on where shadows go and overlapping shadows is incredibly relevant to the web as well as hand drawings. I’ve been documenting my progress on giveit100.com which coincidentally was created by Ms. Cheng as well.

The Give it 100 app has been awesome, and the community has been friendly and helpful! I’m quite impressed with what I’ve seen so far and I’m having fun seeing my own progress in this video format. Side note: I’m looking forward to learning more about the “arm wave dance”

Another goal for 2014 is to get back into running, and with today’s trip into the athlete’s doctor I’ve taken a straight forward step to moving that along as well!

The overall update for the year:

Day to day– Send more mail : I’ve sent 2 unsolicited letters this week!– Keep working on being an active listener : Yep this has been on my mind!– Get my sewing machine back up and running : Not yet started– Read a book with a different opinion than mine : Not yet researched– Rediscover Michigan in my life : We’ve contacted a realtor!

Sports!– Get back into running : Athletic doctor and I are working on it!– Do pushups every day : So far so good, we are up to 21 per day – Go to the climbing gym at least 3 times :Not scheduled yet– Try a new sport (I’m hoping for stand up paddle boarding) :Let’s hold off until it is a bit warmer – Keep to a more strict plant based diet : So far so good, Ryan is going vegetarian which makes this attainable

Brainz– Submit a talk to a conference : not yet, but I have a potential!– Become knowledgable in basic design principles :starting with learning to draw on giveit100.com– Have more of a presence : This one is to have me talking more openly about what I am working on and getting advice, and it is going well so far!– Code a small app : I’ll start this one once I am farther into the design goal

At my house we’ve been talking for the past 2 weeks about all of the goals we want to set for 2014 which has been exciting and really scary. I’m not sure why we have these lizard brains that freak out when we want to try something new! But today I am fighting my lazy lizard brain to and starting to learn basic design!